
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 22, 1994                   TAG: 9411220106
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROPOSED WAL-MART'S 27 ACRES COST $5.4 MILLION

Wal-Mart paid $5.4 million for 27 acres for its proposed 200,000-square-foot superstore, to be built on Peppers Ferry Road across from the New River Valley Mall.

The company closed the deal in late October, court records show.

The move comes as Wal-Mart awaits town approval of its site plan for the store. Assistant Town Manager Lance Terpenny said Monday he suggested minor changes to the plan in his last review of it. He expects it to be resubmitted next week and final approval to come within days.

Construction could begin in December. Engineers previously have said they hope the store will be open in late summer 1995.

The four landowners who sold the property to Wal-Mart, company representatives in Bentonville, Ark., and local developer William "Bill" Matthews, who requested rezoning for the project, either did not return phone calls or were unavailable Monday.

The court records, which were filed Oct. 20, show that Jay D. Nicewonder, who is president of of Whitethorne Plantions Inc., is listed as grantor or seller in the transaction; Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is listed as grantee or buyer. The 27.058-acre tract was sold for $5,412,000. The land was assessed earlier this year at $1.7 million.

At about $200,000 per acre, the price was more expensive than other recent commercial deals in the mall area, though less expensive than the land for Ryan's Steak House, under construction. The 1.7 acres there sold for $473,000, or about $279,000 per acre.

The 11.9 acres for the recently opened 120,000-square-foot Lowe's was sold for $1.4 million, or about $120,000 per acre.

The 68 acres on which the mall stands was sold for $1.9 million in the mid-1980s, a price that was kept low by the fact that the new owners needed to do extensive grading before construction could start.

Wal-Mart, which plans to build an equally large superstore in Roanoke, recently paid $3.625 million for 25 acres there, or $145,000 per acre.

Matthews and Nicewonder were major players in a landswap with Virginia Tech in 1987, in which they acquired 230 acres that are the site of the Market Place shopping center. That land then, a university horticulture farm, was valued at $2.3 million.

by CNB